Fethiye Times at the Movies – The Book of Eli

Gary Oldman and Denzil Washington want the same thing but for different reasons, but who will prevail as they battle to own the key to the future in post-apocalyptic America? This weeks cinema choice is The Book of Eli.

Set 30 years after life-as-we-know-it has ended, there are few survivors, even fewer who remember the time before – most have been born since. It’s a lawless, godless, waterless time when only vultures and scavengers will prosper.

Washington is on a mission. He has a prized book – the only surviving edition and nothing or nobody is going to stand in his way of getting it to where it needs to be.

Oldman is ambitious. He already controls the town’s water supply and a small army of faceless degenerates but he wants more. He’s looking for a book, one whose words will inspire the people and make the speaker of those words the most powerful man in the new world. What he needs is the Bible, but since they were all destroyed after the ‘war’ this has become a lifelong search, in vain, until now.

Oldman and Washington are not that different from each other. Both are driven and don’t hesitate to use violence to get what they want. Both want to share the words of the Bible. But wheras Washington wants to deliver it to all the world, Oldman wants to control is use and harness that power for himself.

Filmed almost in a kind of monochrome, there is a calmness to it. There is some brutal violence, but it’s decisive and efficient, reflecting the scarcity of the environment – nothing is wasted or expended unless necessary.

In addition to the faceless expendibles who are dispatched along the way, there’s a surprise in the form of Frances De la tour and Michael Gambon, playing a couple of tooled-up old-timers who appear to have survived by ‘living off’ drifters that have come their way over the years.

We enjoyed the film, but whereas some films just cry out for a big screen, we felt this one would be equally as enjoyable if watched at home on DVD.

The Hayal cinema in Fethiye often shows films in original language with Turkish subtitles. Keep an eye on the notice boards outside the cinema for details.

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